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(meteorobs) Re: May 7/8 Eta Aquarids poor
Very disappointing Eta Aquarid rates May 7/8. I went earlier to get an
extra hour. For 3 hours 226-526 EDT (626-926 UT) in sky LM7.3 Eta rates
were 1,2,5 while sporadics went 3,6,10. For the first time someone (George)
saw more Etas than me, but that is encouraging -- don't want the shower to
disappear so quickly. I must have hit a slump in the stream.
I saw a fine earth-grazing Eta Aquarid at 304 EDT , an orange +2m with
2-second train going 60 degrees in 3 seconds. The radiant was on or barely
above the horizon. The next Eta did not come until 340 EDT, the usual time
I had been seeing my first on earlier nights.
No Eta was brighter than +1m, but 4 sporadics and one Mu Virginid were 0m
for a bright show of non-Etas.
Total time 226-542 EDT, 3:16 hours, 10 Eta Aquarids, 3 Mu Virginids, 1 Alpha
Scorpiid, 1 Sigma Leonid, and 20 sporadics. The last hour was the best for
sporadics in a long time. The last 3 minutes had twilight which reduced the
LM to poorer than 7.0. Twilight is first noticeable at about 520 EDT.
There has been a patch of clouds hanging around just offshore in the Gulf of
Mexico. A thin layer of cirrus has overspread the sky, and this needs to
move on if I am to do any observing tomorrow morning. At sunrise the far
west had thicker cirrus, looking like convective debris from storms well
offshore.
Norman W. McLeod III
Visual Program Coordinator
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com